“Roman Kiosk” at Naqa
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CHAPTER EIGHT THE HELLENISTIC EGYPTIAN STYLE KIOSK AT NAQA OR “ACCULTURATION” SIDETRACKED I shall cause him to appear in his sacred image on his way to Harem-of-the-South [. .] shall cause him to go in procession to his house[.]1 The so-called “Roman Kiosk” at Naqa (Pls 151–154) is usually described as one of the finest monuments of Meroitic architecture.2 Admitting that it is indeed a fine edifice, here it will be introduced as a case for “acculturation” on a sidetrack. The “Roman Kiosk” stands in front of the Apedemak temple,3 one of the principal sanctuaries of Naqa. Naqa, the T̠w¡ıʾrk mentioned in the Apedemak hymn from Musawwarat es Sufra as an ancient place of the lion god’s cult,4 was an important urban settlement in the Butana south of Meroe City. In the AD first century the Apedemak shrine determined Naqa’s sacred landscape5 together with the Amun temple of Natakamani and Amanitore,6 the neighbouring temple of Aman- ikhareqereme (Temple 200),7 Queen Shanakadakheto’s temple8 on the southwestern slope of Gebel Naqa, the mountain overlooking the 1 Great Triumphal Inscription of Piankhy, lines 25 f., FHN I No. 9, trans. R.H. Pierce. 2 Cailliaud 1826; Schreiber 1908 283 f., fig. 213; Kraus 1964; Wenig 1975b fig. 421; Wenig 1978 fig. 66; Török 1984; Török 1988 fig. 44; Török 1997a Pl. 11; Wildung – Schoske 1999 figs 47, 48; Wildung – Kroeper 2006 figs 14–16; Baud – Sackho-Autissier – Labbé-Toutée (eds) 2010 fig. 92. 3 I. Gamer-Wallert – K. Zibelius: Der Löwentempel von Naq’a in der Butana (Sudan) I. Forschungsgeschichte und Topographie. Wiesbaden 1983; J. Brinks: Der Löwentem- pel von Naq’a in der Butana (Sudan) II. Baubeschreibung. Wiesbaden 1983; Gamer- Wallert 1983; Zibelius 1983. 4 Hintze 1962 No. 11, fig. 9=FHN II No. 126. 5 Wildung – Kroeper 2006 fig. 8/b. 6 Wildung – Schoske 1999 54 ff.; Török 2002a 241 ff.; K. Kroeper: Metamorphoses of the Amun Temple in Naga. in: Caneva – Roccati (eds) 2005 287–295. 7 For the current archaeological work at the site of the temple cf. Wildung – Kroeper 2006 15, Pls 20, 28. 8 Hintze 1959 37 ff.; I. Hofmann – H. Tomandl – M. Zach: Der Tempel F von Naqa. VA 1 (1985) 27–35; Török 2002a 207 ff. 302 chapter eight settlement, and a number of other shrines and palaces still waiting for excavation.9 Like in other urban settlements,10 processional avenues interconnected Naqa’s sanctuaries and palaces. The line of some of these may be reconstructed on the basis of the position of the “Roman Kiosk”, the kiosk and avenue of rams in front of the Amun temple, and the kiosk in front of Temple 200.11 The growing importance of processional feasts and significant devel- opments in personal religiosity brought about the building of a great number of kiosks of various types and functions by the rulers of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty at Thebes and elsewhere in Egypt.12 The rulers of the double kingdom and their successors built kiosks and barque repositories in Nubia as well, where they belonged to the places of man’s integration within the universe and society. The remarkable number of preserved kiosks13 demonstrates that the encounters of the deities with the people on the occasion of processional feasts contin- ued to play an important role in the life of the Nubian communities throughout the Napatan and Meroitic periods. The position of a kiosk in relation to a temple building indicates its association with (a) particular episode(s) in the divine journeys and with the people’s encounters with the deities. The functional con- texts in which we find the Nubian kiosks of the Napatan and Meroitic periods14 do not differ from the typology of contemporary Egyptian kiosks. The following types can be identified: (a) “transitory” shrine in front of the temple door along the axis of the processional avenue;15 (a’) “transitory” shrine in front of the temple, not exactly on the axis of the processional avenue;16 (b) “transitory” shrine in front of the temple door on the axis of the processional avenue; before the shrine, slightly out of alignment, a high altar turning towards the temple; (c) “transi- tory” shrine on the axis of the processional avenue; between the shrine 9 Cf. Wildung – Schoske 1999 41 ff. 10 Cf. Török 2002a 19 ff., 273 ff. 11 Török 2002a 26 ff. 12 Cf. W. Helck: Kiosk. LÄ III (1979) 441–442; Arnold 1994 124. 13 Cf. Hinkel 1989. 14 Török 2002a 273 ff.; for the evidence, see also Hinkel 1989; and cf. Arnold 1999 277 ff. 15 Napata, Amun temple B 500, late 1st century BC–early AD 1st century, Dun- ham 1970 Plan V; Meroe City, late Amun temple, early AD 1st century, Török 1997b 117 f. 16 “Roman Kiosk”, Naqa, Amun temple of Natakamani and Amanitore, AD mid- first century, see below..